Archive

It is a given that most politicians will do whatever it takes to win voters to get elected. It’s pretty much why their reputation is often at the same level as telemarketers and sex-workers (which, fair to say, is a slight on sex workers and telemarketers).

The responsibility for our perceived untrustworthiness of politicians is generally laid directly at their feet, when they often say things that are;

a manipulation of facts/statistics

cherry-picks facts, omitting the whole picture

promises that are eventually watered-down or dumped entirely (eg, as with National’s policy to include agriculture in the ETS scheme in 2008, 2014, and 2015

Even National could no longer ignore our worsening obesity epidemic. In October 2015, the Ministry of Health launched a Childhood obesity plan. The policy appeared largely ineffective as obesity levels grew.

“Physical inactivity cost New Zealand’s health care system over $200 million in 2013 and some research indicates that around 20 per cent of young Auckland children are overweight.

The Education Minister needs to continue the Auckland Education Growth Plan which was being worked on by the previous Government and was due to be considered by Cabinet last November. It is important to look at the work done so far to factor in potential opportunities around sport and recreational infrastructure.

We must prioritise sport and recreation in our communities and Auckland Council and the Government must front up with more funding to support Auckland’s sporting infrastructure.”

Nowhere does she address the grim reality that we are feeding crap “food” to our children.

National MPs would be hysterical with rage if marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, etc, was made legally available to children. Not for one moment would they accept the nonsensical proposition that banning children from accessing such drugs (whether legal or not) would be “Nanny Statish”.

But when it comes to crap food with high levels of salt, fat, and sugar – then it’s acceptable to National MPs. It becomes a “free choice” issue. That’s despite a supposedly intelligent, well-informed person like Ms Kaye being cognisant of the fact that “… around 20 per cent of young Auckland children are overweight”.

Referring to plans to combat rising obesity in our children should be a social responsibility, just as preventing drink-driving and smoking in restaurants and bars became the norm.

Labelling anything that reduced child obesity as “nanny state” is reprehensible because it plays politics with our young people. Invoking “nanny state” to win a few votes is self-serving.

A politician who casually parrots and throws around catch-phrases like “Nanny State” exploits the health of our children for personal gain.

Ms Kaye should reconsider her stance on healthy food in our schools. Or consider changing professions to something equivalent to political activity – but not likely to be a liability to our children’s health.

Shortly after 11.30am this morning, Hundman was sent a txt from Air NZ saying “As you were advised onboard, the aircraft operating your flight did not have regulatory approval to land in China and was required to return to Auckland.”

An Air NZ spokeswoman was not immediately able to say why the flight could not gain permission to land. The airline is waiting on an update from its operations team.

“I would be stunned if Air NZ had allowed a plane full of passengers to take off without being quite sure they would be able to land it in Shanghai,” Hundman says.

“They are telling us it has been ‘rescheduled’ to depart tonight at 11pm – though I tried to check in before leaving the airport and they told me the new flight hadn’t been set up yet.”

Reparations offered so far has been meagre, Hundman says.

“We were given hotel vouchers for the Crowne Plaza, $30 of meal vouchers for use at the airport, and taxi vouchers. There’s been no compensation offered for time lost or hassle Hundman says.

He says passengers were woken up by the pilot with the turnaround announcement four or five hours into the flight. He was one of a handful travelling business class, so could only gauge the reaction of a handful of passengers around him, but he says all were shocked.

Hundman, taking advantage of inflight wi-fi, took to social media:

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Flight passenger, Eric Hundman, said;

“I would be stunned if Air NZ had allowed a plane full of passengers to take off without being quite sure they would be able to land it in Shanghai.”

He’s right.

There appears to be no rationale for the Air New Zealand flight to have been aborted. There was no mention made of any technical or mechanical problems. Instead, the reason given was “regulatory approval to land in China“.

Air New Zealand has been flying to Shanghai since June 2006. It seems strange that, thirteen years later, there would be a problem with one of our aircraft having “landing permission” problems.

The US government has initiated an extraordinary outreach campaign to foreign allies, trying to persuade wireless and internet providers in these countries to avoid telecommunications equipment from Chinese company Huawei, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Chinese state media warns there will be a backlash to New Zealand after the controversial decision to block Huawei equipment in the planned 5G mobile network.

Officials and experts have told Chinese tabloid Global Times that the ban will “only hurt [New Zealand’s] industry and consumers”.

Xiang Ligang, a Beijing-based veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times the move will backfire.

“New Zealand has taken this action just after the US reportedly asked its allies to say ‘no’ to Huawei equipment. It’s following the US’ lead on this matter, but it will only end up hurting itself,” he said.

It would not be the first time that inexplicable “problems with paperwork” had impacted on New Zealand commerce with China.

New Zealand’s beef and lamb is still being blocked from entering China.

The meat industry says it’s a huge concern and is already costing a lot of money.

The issue was revealed on 3 News last night and it’s understood the problem arose because Chinese authorities weren’t informed of the name change of a New Zealand government ministry.

The meat is not allowed into the country and hasn’t been now for nearly a week.

The problem was again described officially as “incorrect paperwork”;

The problem is believed to have arisen after the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries recently became the Ministry of Primary Industries and Chinese border controls aren’t recognising the new names and logos on the export certificates.

“We’ve got MFAT officials and MPI officials working around the clock to resolve this,” says Minister for Food Safety Nikki Kaye. “We’ve been providing technical documentation through to Chinese authorities and we remain confident that this will be resolved in the near future.”

As pointed out in my blogpost at the time, New Zealand was in the process of conducting a Free Trade Agreement negotiation with Taiwan. Beijing claims sovereign jurisdiction over Taiwan, describing it as a “renegade province”.

State-run Chinese tabloid Global Times warned US President-elect Donald Trump that China would “take revenge” if he reneged on the one-China policy, only hours after Taiwan’s president made a controversial stopover in Houston.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met senior US Republican lawmakers during her stopover in Houston on Sunday en route to Central America, where she will visit Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. Tsai will stop in San Francisco on 13 January, her way back to Taiwan.

China had asked the United States not to allow Tsai to enter or have formal government meetings under the one China policy.

So when Beijing got wind that the Key-led National government was conducting negotiations directly with Taipei, as if it were a sovereign government, it seems utterly feasible that Beijing flexed it’s economic muscle to warn New Zealand that it was treading on dangerous ground.

The stalling of exports at a Chinese port was a message sent to the Key government: don’t mess with China over the Taiwan issue – your trade will be at risk.

Fast- forward six years and it is again feasible that Beijing has sent a “stern message” to the New Zealand government over our caving to Washington over Huawei.

This incident may have been a covert reminder to New Zealand that in choosing to side with the American Empire, we have put our trade with the planet’s second largest economy at risk.

If so, it may be to our peril. If there is a second global financial crisis looming, and if China abrogates our FTA with that country, we may end up regretting taking sides in the current US-China rivalry.

Mice tend to get trampled underfoot when elephants are rampaging for supremacy.

This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 11 February 2019.

In July last year (2018), the West Council Regional Council announced in a submission to the Ministry for the Environment that they would not be supporting the Coalition Government’s proposed Zero Carbon Bill. The Council stated;

The West Coast Regional Council (WCRC or ‘the Council’) does not support the Zero Carbon Bill (ZCB) as it creates too much uncertainty for the West Coast region. There are too many unknowns that arise from this discussion document to gain the Councils support. Further, the discussion document has not presented the science behind the proposed bill. We suggest the science that underpins the ZCB should be clearly discussed and summarised in order for the layperson to understand and potentially accept it. Climate change is a very complex issue and to ask the people of the West Coast to commit to an emissions target (and accept the subsequent adverse effects discussed below), the evidence proving anthropogenic climate change must be presented and proven beyond reasonable doubt.

The statement was repeated further on in the submission;

While the framework of the ZCB appears to be well-intentioned the science behind the bill and Anthropogenic climate change needs to be presented and proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Partnering with NOAA, NIWA is not short on a wealth of climate data gathered by sophisticated devices and skilled, dedicated scientists. It may be an over-used cliche, but New Zealand “punches above it’s weight” on climate science.

“We must be objective and base our decisions on science and that’s why we want the science presented really simply; we don’t have climate change experts on our staff so we just want everyone to understand it.”

There are processes that the Council can go through to be briefed on climate change and better informed.

In fact, the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MoBIE) provides an Envirolink Grant which is specifically designed “to provide regional councils with advice and research on environmental projects”;

The funding available

Funding of $1.6 million (excluding GST) is available each year for Crown research institutes, universities and private research organisations to provide regional councils with advice and research on environmental projects.

Envirolink funding is invested through 3 on-demand processes:

a Small Advice grant to provide councils with initial expert advice on proposed environmental research

a Medium Advice grant to provide more detailed advice

a Tools Development grant to fund the development of environmental management tools for councils.

Those eligible are listed on the MoBIE website;

Who can apply

The following regional councils and unitary authorities are currently eligible to apply for Envirolink support via the small and medium advice grants:

Northland Regional Council

Gisborne District Council

Hawkes Bay Regional Council

Horizons Regional Council

Nelson City Council

Marlborough District Council

Tasman District Council

West Coast Regional Council

Environment Southland.

All regional councils and unitary authorities are eligible to apply for the Tools development grants.

The information from NIWA is available and extensive.

However, it appears that the real question is not whether the information is available and whether or not climate change has been proven beyond reasonable doubt. As NASA scientist, Compton Tucker, said three years ago;

“We’re starting to see the death of climate change denial, that is the evidence accumulated from multiple sources.

The evidence is overwhelming and there are people who are wilfully ignorant about climate change and they invoke a wide variety of mechanisms which are pretty silly.”

Mr Birchfield owns several coal mines. Coal is a prime source of carbon dioxide. And carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gases.

Despite rejecting that he is a climate change denier and opposing the Zero Carbon Bill “…because I’m a coal miner”, Mr Birchfield is also a devout follower of Donald Trump;

“I strongly support what Donald Trump has done in America bring all the miners back to work again.”

It would cost nothing for the West Coast Regional Council to be briefed by NIWA. The real question is: do they want to be?

Because whether or not people accept climate change is happening is ultimately irrelevant. Like it or not, climate change is impacting on the West Coast. The same natural force that created coal 360 million years ago is now reacting to the carbon dioxide we are releasing into the atmosphere from burning that same coal.

With indications that the Tax Working Group will shortly be making it’s final report back to the Coalition, and with expectations that it will recommend a Capital Gains Tax on property (excluding the family home), National has launched a multi-media campaign on taxation. Twitter, Facebook, as well as the msm have all carried National’s announcement to cut taxes (dressed up as “tax adjustments” to deflect criticism that National is once again planning to cut taxes for the rich).

It was revealing that Bridges decided to give his speech out-lining plans for tax-cuts-dressed-up-as-tax-adjustments at the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, in Christchurch. He would not dare make such a speech at the Child Poverty Action Group, foodbank, or community hall in a predominantly state housing area.

He made his pitch at the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce because those are the people who would – yet again – benefit from tax-cuts-dressed-up-as-tax-adjustments.

“Accommodative monetary policy, population growth, higher wage outcomes and higher government spending” and a decline in the New Zealand dollar, was continuing to support growth, it said.

“We don’t believe trade tensions between New Zealand’s major trading partners will currently have a substantial impact on the country’s economy and external performance, particularly given that key exports are imported for domestic consumption in China, rather than for re-exporting.”

It was capitalism’s vote-of-confidence in a left-wing government with overtly left-wing policies.

New Zealand went from “stable outlook” in 2009 to “negative” by November 2010. By September 2011, we had dropped from AA Positive to just AA.

In fairness, a sound explanation could lie with the fallout from the 2008 Global Financial crisis and Great Recession that followed.

But no. National compounded the fall in tax revenue resulting from the Recession by cutting taxes in 2009 and 2010, which reduced the tax-take even further. That meant only one recourse for then Finance Minister, Bill English: borrowing. Massive amounts of borrowing..

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National will fast track a second round of tax cuts and is likely to increase borrowing to pay for some of its spending promises, the party’s leader John Key says.

But Mr Key said the borrowing would be for new infrastructure projects rather than National’s quicker and larger tax cuts which would be “hermetically sealed” from the debt programme.

In opening remarks to the party’s annual conference in Wellington today Mr Key said National would incorporate Labour’s October 1 tax cuts, bring forward a second round to April 2009 – a year earlier than Labour – and a third round to April 2010.

Labour’s planned third round would not take effect until April 2011.

National is yet to explain how it will pay for the promised larger cuts.

But deputy leader and finance spokesman Bill English told delegates National was prepared to borrow more to fund infrastructure.

He said New Zealand had one of the lowest levels of debt of any developed country and “additional borrowing” for infrastructure would boost economic growth.

John Key has defended his party’s planned program of tax cuts, after Treasury numbers released today showed the economic outlook has deteriorated badly since the May budget.

The numbers have seen Treasury reducing its revenue forecasts and increasing its predictions of costs such as benefits.

Cash deficits – the bottom line after all infrastructure funding and payments to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund are made – is predicted to blow out from around $3 billion a year to around $6 billion a year.

Mr Key said National anticipated that the figures would be bad but thought “even Michael Cullen could do better than this”.

But he said his party would proceed as planned with the announcement of their tax strategy on Wednesday and he said there would be tax cuts.

Despite drastic spending cuts to social services; ceasing payment to the NZ Superannuation Fund, and redundancies in the state sector – it was all futile and insufficient to meet the duel cost of reduced revenue due to recessionary pressures and the – now obviously unaffordable – taxcuts.

National’s crazy borrowing had been exacerbated by tax cuts that we could ill-afford. This is why Standard and Poor’s took alarm at National’s tax-cuts and borrowings, and downgraded our credit outlook to “negative”. It could be said that New Zealand was ‘Going Greek’ in the South Pacific.

So when current National Party leader, Simon Bridges boasted that New Zealanders “trusted National with managing the economy. You know we’ll be careful with your money” – people with long memories reacted with justified derision.

Make no mistake – and let me spell it out with crystal clarity: there is no such thing as a ‘free school lunch’ or tax-cuts without consequences. School lunches (which are a social necessity) are usually paid for by taxpayers. Tax-cuts will be paid by all of us, if sufficient numbers of voters buy into Bridges’ tax-cut bribe.

Expect National to cut spending on vital social areas; sell remaining state assets (by stealth, if they can get away with it); stop contributions (again) to the NZ Super Fund; and increase user-pays government charges. Bridges may even go so far as to raise gst again.

It is difficult to understand how National will pay for it’s promises with all those taxes abolished. And what does Bridges mean “in our first term“? What, exactly, are they planning for a second term?

We have heard this terrible “tax cuts” song before. It will not sound better the second time around.

I hope New Zealanders have better sense than to fall for this fiscal sleight-of-hand again.

David Farrar had commented on a story that appeared on Fairfax/Stuff’s website on 18 December 2018, entitled;

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“UK school children to be taught boys can have periods too”

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As this blogger wrote on 6 January;

The Fairfax/Stuff article was based on a report from Brighton & Hove City Council dated 3 December 2018. The BHCC report outlined how better support could be offered to students in the Council’s area for sanitary products during menstruation. The Council report outlined measures that could be taken to offer support where needed, remove stigma and shame associated with menstruation, and provide better education on the subject.

This was outlined on page 10 of the report.

Also on page 10 was a section headed;

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Key messages for learning about periods

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The tenth bullet-point made this observation;

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The statement reads “Trans boys and men and non-binary people may have periods“.

It should actually read; “Trans boys andTransmen and non-binary people may have periods“. Or even “Trans boys/men and non-binary people may have periods“. (Which reflects their original internal biology, as opposed to the gender they later identify as.)

The BHCC report does not refer to CIS men.

This blogger wrote to Fairfax/Stuff on 5 January, pointing out the article’s gross inaccuracies;

I submit that the headline and story was not factually accurate and severely mis-represented a published report from the United Kingdom. The mis-repesentation was such that it elicited a hostile and angry response from readers.

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Nowhere in the BHCC report does it state that ”all genders can have periods“. This is an incorrect assertion that is not true. The report clearly refers to trans boys, [trans] men, girls, women , and non-binary people.

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The BHCC report does not state anywhere that ”boys can have periods too“. The report clearly states that “trans boys and [trans] men” may have periods.

Trans boys and [trans] men were, at an early stage, biologically female. They subsequently identified as male

Furthermore, I pointed out the intemperate response by readers to the Fairfax/Stuff article;

The lack of factuality to the Stuff story is evidenced by the following Comments Section. Readers have mis-interpreted what the BHCC actually stated based purely on the headlining and the manner in which statements were mis-reported or presented out-of-context. There has been a massive response hostile to the BHCC report based on the Stuff story mis-representing that ” boys can have periods too” and ” all genders can have periods”.

Much of that hostility has been directed at trans-people/LGBTQI, and as such the erroneous nature of the Stuff story may have led to incalculable harm to an already marginalised minority in our community.

Fairfax/Stuff’s Deputy Editor, Keith Lynch, responded three days later. To their credit, they accepted the poor quality of their “story”;

On reflection, we don’t think this story reached our journalistic standards.

It has been standard for us to refer to trans people as their chosen gender for some time (hence the reference to “boys” rather than “trans boys”).

However in this case, I do take your point and we have updated the story’s intro and headlines and added a clarification to the copy.

True to his word, Keith Lynch revised the story on their website. The heading now read;

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“UK school children to be taught trans boys can have periods too”

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The content was also amended;

New primary school sex education guidelines are being introduced in the United Kingdom to tackle the stigma around menstruation including for trans-gender boys and men.

Brighton & Hove City Council has released a report advising teachers that “Language and learning about periods is inclusive of all genders, cultures, faiths and sexual orientations” as “trans boys and men and non-binary people may have periods”.

It recommends teachers use language that reflects “all genders, cultures, faiths and sexual orientations” and calls for transgender students to be given extra support from a school nurse if needed.

The Fairfax/Stuff story also linked to the original Brighton & Hove City Council report (above).

The reference to “all genders” was made more specific to learning about menstruation;

New guidelines in the UK suggest lessons on menstruation “must be inclusive of all genders”.

On 24 January, I wrote to David Farrar, pointing out that his blogpost and ‘tweet’ were based on an inaccurate media story;

The Fairfax/Stuff story was revised after it was pointed out that their story contained major factual errors. Deputy Editor, Keith Lynch, confirmed that the story did not meet their usual journalistic standards.

If you take a few minutes to read the revised version (link above), you will see it differs considerably from the original version you (and I) read.

Will you be amending or deleting your 3 January blogpost (and associated ‘tweet’) which now refers to a media story that no longer exists in it’s original form?

In all fairness, I’m advising you that I’m putting together a follow-up blogpost to this story (after an initial piece I wrote on 6 January), and any comment you offer may be included.

To David Farrar’s credit, he responded in under 24 hours, confirming that he would amend his blogpost – which he has done so;

UPDATE: The original story has been corrected, and was misleading. They now advise:

This story initially quoted the report as stating”menstruation must be inclusive of all genders”. This was incorrect and the article has been updated. The headlines and intros has also been updated to better reflect the content of the report.

So not that much of a story after all it seems.

Frankly speaking, David Farrar owes this blogger nothing and he would have been within his rights to either ignore me or suggest detailed instructions where I could go. That he opted to make the correction – as did Keith Lynch – is in their favour. Kudos to them both.

All that aside, this experience has highlighted how easily widespread mis-information can end up demonising a marginalised, powerless minority in our community. Subsequently, nearly all comments following David Farrar’s blogpost and the Fairfax/Stuff story, were full of derision. Expressions of intolerance were given ‘permission’ to be voiced. There was more “knee-jerking” from reactionary conservatives than from athletes running a ten thousand metre race.

The problem is that none of the commentators who left comments after the Kiwiblog post and Fairfax/Stuff story would return to read the up-dated version, nor David Farrar’s correction.

Such is how mis-information is spread and misconceptions take form. Several hundred (thousands?) of readers may now be spreading the false notion that British “school children [would] be taught boys can have periods“. Outrage over “political correctness gone mad” can usually be traced back to such mis-information.

The casualties of the job cuts have included subeditors, the now virtually extinct class of senior journalists whose job was to keep errors out of the paper and whose absence is reflected in embarrassing mistakes that, with increasing frequency, provide much glee on social media.

Worse still, far-right groups like the so-called “New Conservative” Party will be only too happy to propagate fake information from various internet sources, whether correct or not..

If this lesson has taught us anything, it is a reminder that we should be very careful with our reporting. Whether highly-read bloggers or mainstream media, we have a duty to get it right the first time.

By the time corrections are made to a badly-written story or blogpost, the damage has been done.

Postscript

This blogger is not immune to “writing from the hip” and making a mistake based on an incorrect msm story:

“NZ Post and Kiwibank are two independently run businesses, which currently share premises in some areas. With the longer-term strategies of the two organisations heading in different directions, it is now an appropriate time to review co-location.”

Even as NZ Post and Kiwibank were “un-co-locating”, the spokesperson also said,

“We are committed to providing postal services across New Zealand. What we are increasingly doing across our network is looking for local businesses to partner with to help us deliver postal services.”

For some reason, partnering with retail outlets was a better prospect for NZ Post than with an established bank. It is unclear why partnering with a pharmacy or video store is preferable to a bank – especially a major New Zealand-owned institution such as Kiwibank.

“In terms of the new outlet, we certainly provide a lot of training to our new partners and then on-going support for them. It’s not just about providing stamps – it’s about providing all the services that are currently provided.”

This is not true.

Splitting Kiwibank and NZ Post was recently carried out in Wellington’s eastern suburb, Kilbirnie and CBD location in Lambton Quay.

In the former, NZ Post has vacated it’s co-located building with Kiwibank in Bay Road, Kilbirnie, and franchised it’s operation to “Paper Plus” – situated immediately next door to the now-stand-alone Kiwibank operation;

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Kiwibank (right), with NZ Post agency at ‘Paper Plus (left)

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When this blogger went to re-register his car at the Kilbirnie NZ Post/Paper Plus agency, the response was that they no longer offered that service. I was advised to travel to the nearest provider for vehicle re-registrations at VTNZ. This was in Adelaide Rd, Newtown;

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The distance was several kilometres away.

Vehicle registration is a significant responsibility for most New Zealanders. With 4,154,891 vehicles registered in New Zealand by 2017, reducing NZ Post’s service in this area would be a major inconvenience for many people. To compound the problem, the policy of offering the registration service does not appear to be standardised throughout NZ Post outlets.

A phone call to another agency in Upper Hutt (approximately 30km north of Wellington) confirmed that the Upper Hutt NZ Post in that town will register cars.

For many small towns and rural communities, NZ Post and Kiwibank are the last remaining essential service left to them. Closure or down-sizing is not a blow that such communities will handle well. When the State retreats from such small communities the sense of alienation is palpable.

Perhaps one of the worst ill-thought-out de-couplings between NZ Post from Kiwibank occurred in Lambton Quay, in Wellington’s CBD.

Until last year, the combined NZ Post/Kiwibank outlet was situated at 94 Lambton Quay.

This blogger went searching for NZ Post to purchase postage stamps. Trekking along most of Lambton Quay, the prominent Kiwibank street signage was a welcome sight;

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Until, that is, this ominous notice was sighted in the window advising NZ Post customers “From Thursday 27th September 2018, bill payments and postal services will no longer be available at Lambton Quay NZ Post & Kiwibank, only Kiwibank services will be available“.

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Several possible options for NZ Post agencies were listed. The closest one appeared to be something called “Capital Office Supplies” at 114 Lambton Quay. Which was odd, as I had just walked along that part of the street and I had seen no indication of a NZ Post anywhere in that vicinity.

I retraced my steps, until I came to this NZ Post sign. Can you see the NZ Post sign in the image below?

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The NZ Post agency/Capital Office Supplies was not located on Lambton Quay proper. That is why it was not readily visible to anyone searching for it. The NZ Post signage in the above image (located beneath street signs for “Mason’s Lane” and “Pedestrian Access to The Terrace“) is wholly inadequate.

NZ Post/Capital Office Supplies is not visible on Lambton Quay – because it does not front onto one of New Zealand’s busiest retail/commercial precincts.

NZ Post/Capital Supplies is located down this alley;

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Even on closer inspection the NZ Post agency sign is difficult to make out in the gloomy light of the narrow alley;

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It simply defies understanding that any executive working for NZ Post would have thought that this site would be an ideal location for a postal agency.

And it doesn’t end there.

Once I bought the stamps, I was directed to the nearest posting boxes. Which was located…

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… opposite to the Kiwibank back at 94 Lambton Quay.

With the amount of walking I did that afternoon, I might as well have hand-delivered the letters myself. Any notion of “customer service” appears to have been discounted.

For a SOE that is fast losing money on it’s postal services – $39 million for the year ended August 2018 – NZ Post’s policy to de-couple from a well-established, highly prominent bank usually located on prime retail land, beggars understanding. How does one generate foot-traffic down an alley-way, compared to a highly-visible street frontage outlet on Wellington “Golden Mile”?

“There are changes afoot that I have had concerns about; it is because the environment’s changing and people aren’t using those postal services in the same way. We are looking at how communities can still have banking services and postal services.

But with some of the changes we’re seeing, we do have some concern over loss of service and banking services as well.”

The Coalition government had better take notice of what is happening. This is a repeat of the late 1980s, when Rogernomics was rampaging through the country, gutting services; de-regulating imports which resulted in business closures and job losses; and a retreat by the State from communities that relied heavily on those services – or the money that was injected into local businesses.

“My job is to hold the Government to account for its promises. This Stoke closure contradicts the Labour/NZ First Coalition agreement that commits to expanding public services in regional New Zealand. It is hypocritical of Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones to have decried other bank branch closures when he is the Associate Minister of State Owned Enterprises that owns NZ Post and Kiwibank. Mr. Jones’ public comments indicate he is unhappy with the decision to close in Stoke Kiwibank and PostShopwith a strong community campaign he could use his powers to have the decision reconsidered.

We call on as many people as possible to join this campaign and to save the Stoke branch of Kiwibank and PostShop. These State Owned businesses need to get to the message that they exist to serve the community that owns them.”

And perhaps, this time, Dr Smith has a valid point when he rails against a possible broken promise from the Coalition Governmen; “This Stoke closure contradicts the Labour/NZ First Coalition agreement that commits to expanding public services in regional New Zealand. It is hypocritical of Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones to have decried other bank branch closures when he is the Associate Minister of State Owned Enterprises that owns NZ Post and Kiwibank”.

Smith’s “inner social activist” came to the fore at a public meeting in Stoke, where he called for public opposition to NZ Post/Kiwibank’s planned closures.

“I call to all businesses in Stoke to boycott the request for agency. Do not buy the line that they are the same. The postal services you receive at an agency in another shop are not as focused on the public as you would see in a dedicated service.”“

“What everyone missed [at the time] is the Government allowed NZ Post to reduce the number of corporate shops they were required to have, as long as they provided service points. What you’re seeing now is all that being bled through into the system.”

I wonder if Dr Smith shared this item of information with the good people of Stoke on 23 November, last year, when he addressed a public meeting of concerned citizens? His chances for re-election in 2020 might be dented if this fact became more widely known in his own electorate.

And lastly, we come to perhaps the most ‘Monty Pythonesque‘ of NZ Post’s current policies…

In early December last year, this blogger visited the Kilbirnie NZ Post/Paper Plus agency to post a Christmas parcel for a friend. The cost of postage came $17.00.

I had $8.00 in postage stamps which I offered to stick on the parcel, and would pay the remaining $9.00.

I was informed by the staffer behind the counter that postage stamps could not be used for parcels. They could only be used for envelopes containing letters.

It defies belief: postage stamps are no longer accepted by NZ Post to be used to send a parcel through the postal system.

Add that bizarre policy to everything described above, and the inevitable question arises: Are our political leaders waging a covert campaign to undermine and destroy NZ Post, as happened with Solid Energy under National’s watch?!

It is difficult not to come to that conclusion. In fact, I wrote to the two ministers in charge of SOEs pointing out NZ Post’s strange policies;

All images stamped ‘fmacskasy.wordpress.com/The Daily Blog’ are freely available to be used, with following provisos,

» Use must be for non-commercial purposes.
» Where purpose of use is commercial, a donation to Child Poverty Action Group is requested.
» At all times, images must be used only in context, and not to denigrate individuals or groups.
» Acknowledgement of source is requested.

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This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 22 January 2019.

The toilet floor had sunk into the ground, making it difficult for Sheraz to use, given his condition.

The shower is also problematic for him as it’s inside a deep bathtub and he needs his wife’s help to use it.

The family has also complained about bugs coming through a hole in the wall of the bathroom.

The hole has been plugged by toilet paper, while a piece of wood was placed to cover the bathroom floor.

Ms Parmar lambasted Housing NZ for “inaction” and called the situation “unbelievable”. Her social media statements were linked to the NZ Herald story, ensuring maximum exposure gained from the Loun family’s dire circumstances.

But Ms Parmar noticeably glossed over a salient point regarding the state of the NZH property;

“The Loun family, two parents and three kids, have been complaining to HNZ about rats, fleas, bugs, an unsafe bathroom and an unsuitable shower at the property for eight months.” – NZ Herald

“… they were chasing them for nearly 8 months, yes nearly 8 months and there was no action…” – Facebook

Eight months?

Fun Fact 1: That suggests this problem has been ongoing since before the election of the current government. In essence, the rot set in (literally!) during National’s term in office.

This brings back memories of Emma-Lita Bourne, who was two years old in 2014, when she perished from a brain haemorrhage resulting from a clot. She had been suffering from a pneumonia-like illness. The toddler and her family had also been living in a sub-standard HNZ property that was cold, damp, had mould on the walls and floor, and the roof leaked.

The coroner, Brandt Shortland, said matter-of-factly;

“I am of the view the condition of the house at the time being cold and damp during the winter months was a contributing factor to Emma-Lita’s health status.”

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Fun Fact 2: Ms Parmar was a Member of Parliament at the time of the Coroner’s findings into Emma-Lita’s death.

In October 2015, Labour’s Phil Twyford introduced the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill to Parliament. That Bill – eventually passed in November 2017 – would create a “warrant of fitness” for rental properties.

By 2016, that number had fallen to 61,600 (with a further 2,700 leased) – a reduction of 7,400 properties.

And by 2017, Housing NZ’s stock of owned or managed properties had fallen to “approximately” 63,000 homes. The 2017 Annual Report does not differentiate the number of owned rental properties from “managed” assets. However, the number is still 1,300 owned/managed properties fewer than the previous year (see above).

National’s policy of selling state housing was obviously proceeding at pace despite Housing NZ posting a loss on the sale of properties of $10,781,000 for the financial year (Annual Report, p108);

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National’s ideological mania for selling state assets was proceeding unchecked, incurring significant losses for the taxpayer.

By 2018, the new Coalition Government had staunched the loss of properties. According to their 2017/18 Annual Report, Housing NZ owned 61,500 properties, with a further 2,500 leased – 64,000 in total and an increase of about a thousand homes.

This is still a far cry from the 69,000 properties owned by Housing NZ when National took office.

Fun Fact 5: Ms Parmar was part of a government that sold/disposed of 7,500 properties.

Fun Fact 6: During her four year tenure in Parliament, Housing NZ lost 5,229 homes from it’s stock

Fun Fact 8: When Ms Parmar entered Parliament in September 2014, there were 4,189 people on Housing NZ’s waiting list. By the time voters threw out the National government in late 2017, that number had risen to 6,182.

Alongside a covert mass-sell-off of state housing, National was also raiding Housing NZ’s coffers.

Fun Fact 9: The government department tasked with looking after some of the most vulnerable, poverty-stricken families and individuals was stripped of “dividends” of $532 million from 2010 to 2015 – over half a billion dollars. The dividends did not include gst and interest payments from Housing NZ to central government;

At a time when thousands were on a waiting list for a home and entire families were living in over-crowded houses; garages, and cars and vans – National was helping itself to cash that could have alleviated a large measure of homelessness.

(Note: Labour, under the Clark/Cullen leadership, also demanded dividends from Housing NZ. It is nothing to be proud of that Budget surpluses were achieved – in part – off the backs of the poor. At least Labour did not cut taxes, as National did in 2009 and 2010, thereby transferring wealth from the poor/HNZ tenants – to the wealthy/high-income earners.)

The Loun family’s HNZ home could have been properly maintained and ongoing faults repaired with that $532 million.

If Ms Parmar wants to vent her anger, she should direct it at herself and her colleagues. It is National (and it’s minor support parties) that are solely to blame for our growing homeless crisis. At a time when New Zealand most needed state houses, National was disposing of them as fast as they thought they could get away with it, as well as bleeding the corporation of it’s money.

According to documents released under the OIA, NZ Herald journalists discovered that Housing NZ officials were attempting to cover up for Ms Parmar;

Housing officials tried to hide a National MP’s attempt to use a Government housing roadshow to raise her own public profile, documents show.

The Labour Party said National list MP Parmjeet Parmar was guilty of trying to use taxpayer money for political campaigning, and officials had been caught red-handed trying to cover it up.

Documents released to Labour MP Kris Faafoi revealed Dr Parmar wanted to co-host a meeting for the Government’s HomeStart programme near Mt Roskill, where a by-election will be triggered when current MP Phil Goff runs for the Auckland Mayoralty.

“Parmjeet Parmar has … expressed a keen interest in hosting a roadshow as she is keen to raise local profile in Mt Roskill in case of a by-election,” an email from Housing Minister Nick Smith’s private secretary said.

Supposedly “neutral” civil servants were caught out attempting to suppress Ms Parmar’s plans to use the housing roadshow for her own benefit;

There was also a further twist. The key passages which revealed that Dr Parmar wanted to use the roadshow for campaigning were redacted by housing officials in three other versions of the email released to Labour.

The passages were redacted by officials on the grounds that they were “out of scope” and to preserve “the free and frank expression of opinions by or between or to Ministers of the Crown”, their employees, or departments.

It is unknown if any of the Housing officials who attempted to cover for Ms Parmar were asked to resign. It would be surprising if there were any ensuing job losses from this scandal.

If Ms Parmar wants to use her taxpayer-funded time lambasting Housing NZ, that is her prerogative.

But at the very least, it would be helpful for New Zealanders to understand the fullness of National’s woeful under-performance in the state housing sector and the role Ms Parmar played. At the very least she exhibited no moral courage on behalf on HNZ tenants whilst she was in government.

There is something repellent about a previous government that actively sabotaged and crippled a vital state housing service – only for former Finance minister Bill English to lament about that very same service unable to fulfill it’s duty to house the most vulnerable families in our society;

“Housing Corp has done its best with the policy settings governments have given them over the last twenty or thirty years.

But you’ve just got to drive round the countryside, or round the cities and suburbs to see that it hasn’t always had the best results. So we just want to get more people helping us to solve the problem of serious housing need.”